Caroline Juliette Nicole PÉTRY (alias Charlie)

50 High Street, East Maitland, NSW 2323 Ph. +61 410 201 310

Email: [email protected]

Career Overview

Originally from Épernay in the heart of the Champagne district of France, I have been living in Australia for over a decade. I was granted permanent residency via sponsorship through Brokenwood Wines in 2009 and have over 14 years’ experience in the wine industry.

I have worked for several premium & boutique firms in France (Champagne Moët & Chandon, Champagne Boizel, Champagne Deutz), in London (International Wine Challenge, Oddbins Wine Merchants) & in Australia (Brokenwood Wines, Keith Tulloch Wines, Meerea Park, Eagles Rest Wines, Tower Estate).

I am extremely passionate about the wine industry. I am outgoing, dynamic, enthusiastic, well presented, confident, self-driven and have a proven track record in my ability to develop new businesses, engage and deliver outstanding customer service while generating maximum sales.

Career Goals

From an interpreting background, I have always been an excellent communicator. Adding to this a passion for the wine industry, a love for travelling and experiencing other cultures.
I see this role as a fantastic opportunity to excel at what I love: delivering the best customer service by promoting, selling wine & creating maximum customer return.

I have a tuned in palate and have been able to engage people from very diverse background. Over the years, I have perfected numerous skills including a understanding each client purchase behaviour and building customer trust. As a result, I have generated a considerable amount of sales as well as outstanding customer return for each of the wineries I worked for. 

Key Skills & Abilities

- Meeting and exceeding sales targets, I thrive on achieving more than the requirements

- Ability to engage people from all backgrounds

- Wine sensory evaluation

- Knowledge of the local market, keep up to date on trends, vintages, competitors, etc

- Liaise with restaurateurs, event coordinators, suppliers and clients 

- Written and oral communication of expenses and results

- Ability to sell sizeable quantities of wine over the phone

- Plan and schedule onsite and offsite events

- Organisation & Time management: demonstrated both in meeting deadlines for event preparation and by meeting specific sales targets

- Team leadership and management, including hiring, training & mentoring new staff members

- Ability to work unsupervised as well as part of a team

Education

2004: WSET, Wine & Spirits Education Trust

2002: BTS Interpreter Trilingue (Australian equivalent Advanced Vocational Diploma in Interpreter, trilingual studies) including: - French: Mother tongue          - English: First language          - French: Mother tongue          - English: First language          - Spanish: Fluent         -Italian: Notions

Professional Experience

2015-2016: Eagles Rest Wines

Cellar Door & Wholesale Manager/BDM

This role was an exciting opportunity to open a brand new Cellar Door and place it on the map.

My current employer has gone from strength to strength with significant growth since the establishment of the Cellar Door. The company began with very minimal trade to the public & I single headedly turned over $110k in trade in the first 6 months of operation, including $15K over the phone in the space of 3 days.

Key responsibilities:

• Pricing the entire wine portfolio, according to its age ability, award winnings & stock quantities of each product
• Manage wine sales through the cellar door, facilitate & conduct unique wine tastings for customers. 
• Selling to restaurants wine lists & bottle shops
• Ability to engage with customers from different backgrounds in order to deliver optimum tailored customer service. 
• Creation & maintain of a strong Wine Club membership with 115 active members as of Jan 2016.
• Coordinate a range of events to promote the Wine Club & Cellar Door as a new venue 
• Develop the events calendar for the year ahead
• Coordinating wine dinners and events
• Act as a self-motivated employee, with a hands on role with sales plus administration duties
• Showcase my strength in hospitality management & team building, including hiring a front of house team that I trained and mentored.
• Working with cellar door staff to ensure they are educated, motivated & passionate ambassadors of the brand
• Maintain knowledge of the company & competitors wine products
• Represent the company at cellar door, regional events, workshops & conferences, including travelling QLD & NSW to grow the brand
• Maintain and account for stock and supplies
• Putting into place policies and procedures adhering to industry standards & OHS rules
• Involved in blending the 2015 whites and 2014 reds. 

2013-2015: Meerea Park Wines

Cellar Door Manager

Meerea Park tripled their wine sales since I arrived on board as Cellar Door Manager. The company has now been able to expand their production of wine in order to keep up with the demand, and has extended the size of their cellar door in order to accommodate more customers. (Creation of a Members Room)

Key responsibilities:

- Sell wine to private, trade, corporate & international clients 

- Sell wine to restaurants and bottle shops

- Represent the brand onsite & offsite

- Attract, train, retain, lead and mentor a passionate cellar door team

- Initiate and implement training to support staff in delivering excellent service, achieving sales targets and increase their knowledge of wine to support growth

- Develop a culture of exceptional customer service and engagement both within the cellar door and at offsite trade events

- Create and implement the annual marketing plan including events’ calendar

- Effectively manage costs including staffing and financial budgets, purchasing and inventory

- Create and maintain a well presented cellar door that respects and further showcases the brand

- Increase, oversee and manage the growth of the wine club

- Create and ensure all employees adhere to Occupational Health & Safety policies

2013: Keith Tulloch Wines

Assistant Cellar Door Manager, Wholesale representative

After 15 month of travelling Central Europe, Eastern Europe & Southern Africa, I decided that it was time for me to return to Australia and work in my chosen place to live: the Hunter Valley. I very much enjoyed working for Keith Tulloch and was very pleased to be called in the winery to discuss a new wine style that would capture a specific targeted niche of clients and generate more sales.

Key responsibilities:

- Ensuring a high level of customer service

- Maximising sales

- Selling to restaurants wine lists,

- Increasing the growth of the wine club

- Maintain a well presented cellar door that respects and further showcases the brand

- Ensure all employees adhere to Occupational Health & Safety policies

2011: DeIuliis Wines

Vintage Work

In 2011, as part of my self-education on wine and personal growth, I negociated with Brokenwood Wines to accord me 2,5 months leave in order to work during vintage at DeIuliis winery. I very much enjoyed the experience and being hands on was the best way to put the knowledge I had into practice. 

2005-2011: Brokenwood Wines

Cellar door sales, International Wine club coordinator 

& Corporate sales executive

I arrived in Australia in 2005, with the purpose to travel all the wine producing areas for a year in order to perfect my palate on Australian wines. After 3 months of constantly generating very high sales, the company offered me a sponsorship to remain at Brokenwood, and 4 years later renewed my visa, granting me Permanent residency.

I was recognized for my outstanding sales performances and enthusiasm, leading to the creation of 2 new roles tailored to my sales skills: International Wine Club Coordinator & Corporate sales executive.

Key responsibilities:

- Maximising sales

- Ensuring a high level of customer service

- Selected to meet and liaise with distributors in Australia, Hong Kong & America

- Sell wine to restaurants and bottle shops

- Business development by creating a Corporate database of high end clients

- Increasing the wine clubs database nationally and internationally

- Contributing to the preparation of monthly sales reports

- Offsite tastings (for corporate groups, wine dinners, trade & industry events)

- Training junior staff members

- Organising stock transfers

- Hands on Vintage work 

2003-2005: Oddbins Wine Merchants

Assistant Manager (Kennington branch, London SE)

Assistant Manager (Brondesbury Park branch, London NW)

Wine Advisor (Wapping Fine Wine Store & Humidor, London E)

In 2003 I found myself surrounded by international wines while living in London and decided to learn more about them as I found them fascinating. I undertook to study and achieved the diploma from WSET. I also took some time off in order to work at the IWC in order to have the opportunity to taste more international wines while learning about wine typicity & wine judging.

2003, 2005 & 2010: IWC, International Wine & Spirits Challenge

Steward/Wine Event Assistant (London)

I was very lucky to be exposed to numerous obscure & more typical wines from all over the world at this very unique annual event.

Charles Metcalfe, Robert Joseph & Oz Clarke were my mentors while stewarding and I gained an incredible knowledge about wine varietal characters, wine shows & wine judging.

2002-2003: Champagne Boizel

Personal Assistant in Export & Commercial departments (Epernay, France)

This experience was part of my degree and was absolutely wonderful. I learnt a great deal of skills by assisting the Export manager and the Sales team. Once my apprenticeship was completed, Madame Evelyne Boizel hired me to replace a Maternity leave.

2002: Champagne Moët & Chandon

Personal Assistant in Public Relations & VIP departments (Epernay, France)

This experience was part of my degree and was an excellent eye opener on how large organisations operate. I very much enjoyed learning about Marketing, Public Relations & Brand exposure by organizing VIP events for Moët & Chandon.

 Other Qualifications:

• Interpreter
• RSA
• HVWIA sensory evaluation
• Cardfast mail order sales
• First aid
• Fire fighting
• POS: Ezywine, MYOB, Accpac, Subscrebibility

Personal Interests:

Wine, Cooking, Writing, Hiking, Yoga, Bird-watching, Globetrotting, Skiing, Music, Cinema